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http://www.omniture.com --> Sections Home Page Local News AP News Archives Business Classifieds Event Calendar Forums Life Opinion Obituaries Photo Gallery Readers Photo Gallery Sports Tempo Weather Special Coverage 2006 Britt Festivals --> Shop Our Valley AutoFinder HomeFinder JobFinder Search Our Valley Special Sections Homelife Magazine Joy Magazine Neighborhoods Employment Guide Oregon Golf Info Oregon Wine Info Other Publications Local Links Ashland News eSouthernOregon Newspapers In Education Personals Moving Here Movie Listings TV Listings Volunteer Customer Service Advertise With Us Media Kit Place Classified Ad Contact Us FAQ's Home Delivery Site Map --> Email Story to a Friend October 17, 2006 Zach Humphrey, 13, does push-ups at one of the Ashland YMCA�s Fit Trail stations. The Fit Trail allow kids and adults to enhance fitness by exercising different muscle groups on a �par course.� (Mail Tribune / Roy Musitelli) A good fit Ashland YMCA's new Fit Trail gives people a low-impact way to build their strength and aerobic abilities By JOHN DARLING for the Mail Tribune It's a far stretch from indoor aerobics or treadmills — and the kids love it. It's the outdoor Fit Trail (sometimes called a "par course"). It's free and open to the public and it was installed at the Ashland YMCA with volunteer labor and donated materials a few months ago as part of the United Way Day of Caring. The Fit Trail offers six stations with varieties of timbers and poles and, with the help of instructional signs, you do situps, pull-ups, leg raises, calf stretches, knee lifts, toe raises, hamstring stretches and side stretches. The workout enforces fitness in all three major ways, with muscle resistance, stretching and, if you set a pace and jog to each station, you get your cardio-pulmonary workout, says Y exercise director John Sousa. Or you can walk and catch your breath between stations. "We just want to get people away from the TV and moving, however we have to do it, and this is a good way to do it. It's fun, that's the big thing," Sousa says. "Exercise should be fun — and it helps the kids interact and make up games as they go." The Fit Trail is "making a hit" with kids, because they can compete with each other, as on chin-ups or learn teamwork, as they do on station No. 6, the quadriceps climb — where you have to walk on the ends of big timbers planted in the ground while holding onto a central pole, a feat requiring a lot of communication when you have four or five kids. Advertisement "My favorite is seeing how long you can hang from the chinning bar," says Michael Crenshaw, 10. "It helps me get strong for bucking hay." Clara Keith, 11, values the course to strengthen her upper body for martial arts, while Troy Behnke, 11, wants to use it to build muscles for football. But don't get the idea that the Fit Trail, built on the upper soccer field behind the Y, is just for kids. It's located between a senior community and a low-income housing development and is beginning to attract nearby residents of all ages. It's exactly a quarter-mile, so runners often jog it — and they'll stop to do some stretches and other strength exercises, Sousa says. The trail was built from a kit, on large city parkland off Tolman Creek Road. It will be doubled in size when four more, much more strenuous stations are built on the lower soccer field late next summer, at the next Day of Caring. The feat of constructing it in one day and laying bark chip paths was carried out by 100 volunteers from the Y, Ashland Parks and Recreation, KeyBank, Michael L. Piels CPAs, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, SGI-Eagle Peak Chapter, Southern Oregon University, St. Mary's High School, Wells Fargo Bank and United Way. Financial donors to the project included Medford Fabrication, Avista Utilities, Wells Fargo, McDonald's, Regence Blue Cross-Blue Shield, Morgan Wealth Management, Lithia Motors, U.S. Bank, Providence Health Systems, Moss-Adams CPAs and Piels. The course is available to engage children of families who need to stand for extended periods watching their kids play soccer. The only drawback of the course is that it's outside in long rainy, cold months, says Sousa, but kids in exercise classes can always flee inside. The par course vision started in France in the 1970s and is considered a low-impact, decorative feature that fits in nicely with any park or landscaping, says Y communications director Ellen Hamer, who adds that it helps fight back against the national obesity epidemic. John Darling is a freelance writer living in Ashland. 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